Running low with nowhere to charge

Running an EV to empty is rare, and it is worth being clear about why: the car warns you repeatedly, its navigation routes around chargers, and the failure mode is gradual. But it happens, and the internet's answers to it are mostly products that do not work.

What does not help

• Portable battery packs sold as EV jump-starters for the traction battery. A jump pack for a 12-volt battery is a genuinely useful thing and you may want one -- but it does nothing for the drive battery. The physics is unforgiving: a pack that could add meaningful range would itself be the size and weight of a small EV battery.
• Solar panels. A portable panel produces a tiny fraction of what a car needs. A day of sun might add a mile or two.
• A generator in the trunk. Heavy, noisy, and slower than simply having the car towed to a charger.
• Pushing the range estimate. The last few percent of an EV battery is the least predictable, particularly in cold weather or a headwind.

What genuinely helps

1. 1.A 12-volt jump pack. Not for range -- for the small battery that runs the car's electronics. On many EVs a dead 12-volt battery means the car will not power up at all, even with a full traction battery. This is a far more common EV roadside failure than running out of charge.
2. 2.Your Level 1 cable, always in the car. If you can reach any normal outlet -- a gas station, a restaurant that says yes, a friendly house -- an hour buys you about 5 miles. Two hours buys you enough to reach a real charger.
3. 3.A portable Level 2 charger with a 14-50 adapter. If you can reach an RV outlet, you are back in business in under an hour.
4. 4.Roadside assistance that covers EVs. Check whether yours does, and whether it tows to a charger or just to a garage. Some manufacturers include EV-specific roadside charging or towing.
5. 5.**Charger network apps installed and logged in *before* you need them.** Creating an account at 4% battery in a parking lot in the rain is a bad time to discover the app needs a verification email.

If you are actually about to run out

1. 1.Slow down. Aerodynamic drag rises sharply with speed, so dropping from 70 to 55 mph makes a substantial difference to remaining range.
2. 2.Turn off cabin heating, which is one of the largest non-driving loads. Air conditioning matters less but is not free. Heated seats use far less than cabin heat.
3. 3.Use the car's navigation to find the nearest charger rather than a third-party app, since the car knows its own state of charge and can route to something reachable.
4. 4.Head for any charger, not the best one. A slow Level 2 charger you reach beats a fast one you do not.
5. 5.Stop while you still have range to reach something, rather than gambling on the next exit.